1999

Events

January

• January 1 – The euro currency is established, and the European Central Bank assumes full powers.
• January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched by NASA.
• January 10 – The crime drama series The Sopranos premieres on HBO.
• January 25 – The 6.2 Colombia earthquake strikes western Colombia, killing at least 1,900 people.

  February

• February 7 - Abdullah II inherits the throne of Jordan, following the death of his father King Hussein.
• February 11 - Pluto moves along its eccentric orbit further from the Sun than Neptune. It had been nearer than Neptune since 1979, and will become again in 2231.
• February 12 - U.S. President Bill Clinton is acquitted in impeachment proceedings in the United States Senate.
• February 16
• * In Uzbekistan, an apparent assassination attempt against President Islam Karimov takes place at government headquarters.
• * Across Europe, Kurdish protestors take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrests one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
• February 23
• * Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
• * 1999 Galtür avalanche: An avalanche destroys the village of Galtür, Austria, killing 31.
• February 27 - While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being aloft for 233 hours and 55 minutes.

  March

• March 1
• * One of four bombs detonated in Lusaka, Zambia, destroys the Angolan Embassy.
• * Rwandan Hutu rebels kill and dismember eight foreign tourists at the Buhoma homestead, Uganda.
• * The Ottawa Treaty comes into force.
• March 12 - Former Warsaw Pact members Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic join NATO.
• March 15 - The Santer Commission of the EU resigns over allegations of corruption.
• March 21
• * Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
• * The 71st Academy Awards are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles with Shakespeare in Love winning Best Picture.
• March 24
• * NATO launches air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign state.
• * A fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel kills 39 people, closing the tunnel for nearly three years.
• March 26 - The Melissa virus attacks the Internet.
• March 27 - Kosovo War: A U.S. Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is shot down by Yugoslav forces.
• March 28 - The adult animated sitcom Futurama premiered on Fox.
• March 29 - For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark, at 10,006.78.

  April

• April 1 - Nunavut, an Inuit homeland, is created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories to become Canada's third territory.
• April 5
• * Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 are handed over to Scottish authorities for eventual trial in the Netherlands. The United Nations suspends sanctions against Libya.
• * In Laramie, Wyoming, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder, in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the apparent hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard.
• April 7 - Kosovo War: Kosovo's main border crossings are closed by Yugoslav forces to prevent Kosovo Albanians from leaving.
• April 9 - Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, president of Niger, is assassinated.
• April 14 - Kosovo War: NATO warplanes repeatedly bomb ethnic Albanian refugee convoys for 2 hours over a 12-mile stretch of road, after mistaking them for Yugoslav military trucks, between Đakovica and Dečani in western Kosovo, killing at least 73 refugees.
• April 20 - Columbine High School massacre: Two Littleton, Colorado, teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, open fire on their teachers and classmates, killing 13 students and 1 teacher, and then themselves.
• April 21 Explosions were heard in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad, and Subotica. Thousands of people were killed.
• April 24 - Namibian Economic Society is founded.
• April 26
• * Sultan Salahuddin of Selangor becomes the 11th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• * British TV presenter Jill Dando, 37, is shot dead on the doorstep of her home in Fulham, London.
• April 30 - Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, bringing the total members to 10.

  May

• May 1 –The television series SpongeBob SquarePants premiered on Nickelodeon.
• May 3 - 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak: a devastating tornado, rated F5 on the Fujita scale, hits southern and eastern Oklahoma City metropolitan area, killing 36 people and producing the highest winds recorded on Earth:.
• May 7
• * Kosovo War: in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 others wounded when a NATO B-2 aircraft bombs the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.
• * In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.
• May 12 - David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer of the modern Scottish Parliament.
• May 13 - Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is elected President of Italy.
• May 14–June 20 – The 1999 Cricket World Cup is held in England,, with Australia defeating Pakistan in the final.
• May 17 - Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel.
• May 23 – The WWF pay-per-view event Over the Edge takes place at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. The event is tragically remembered for the accidental death of wrestler Owen Hart during a stunt.
• May 26
• * Kargil War: The Indian Air Force launches an attack on intruding Pakistan Army troops and mujahideen militants in Kashmir.
• * The 1999 UEFA Champions League final takes place at the Camp Nou Stadium, Barcelona, in which the English side Manchester United defeats the German side Bayern Munich 2–1.
• May 27
• * The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
• * Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-96, the first shuttle mission to dock with the International Space Station.
• May 28
• * Two Swedish police officers are wounded by bank robbers armed with automatic firearms, and later executed with their own service pistols in Malexander, Sweden.
• * After 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper is placed back on display in Milan, Italy.
• May 29 - Nigeria terminates military rule, and the Fourth Nigerian Republic is established with Olusegun Obasanjo as president.

  June

• June 1
• * Napster, a music downloading service, is created; it would later inspire other file-sharing sites such as The Pirate Bay, LimeWire, Gnutella, Kazaa, Morpheus, BearShare, and ΜTorrent 1999–2010 period which some called the "Second Golden Age of Piracy".
• * American Airlines Flight 1420 crash lands after overrunning the runway at Little Rock National Airport, killing 11 of the 145 people on board.
• June 2 – The King of Bhutan allows television transmissions to commence in the Kingdom for the first time, coinciding with the King's Silver Jubilee.
• June 5 – The Islamic Salvation Army, the armed wing of the Islamic Salvation Front, agrees in principle to disband in Algeria.
• June 8 – The government of Colombia announces it will include the estimated value of the country's illegal drug crops, exceeding half a billion US dollars, in its gross national product.
• June 9 – Kosovo War: Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty to end their hostilities.
• June 10 – Kosovo War: NATO suspends its airstrikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Yugoslav forces from Kosovo.
• June 12 – Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian/Operation Agricola begins: NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping forces KFOR enter Kosovo, Yugoslavia.
• June 16 – Thabo Mbeki is inaugurated as the second president of South Africa, marking the first peaceful transfer of executive power in the country's post-democratization history.
• June 18 – The J18 international anti-globalization protests are organized in dozens of cities around the world, some of which led to riots.
• June 19 – Turin, Italy, is awarded the 2006 Winter Olympics.
• June 20 - Australia defeats Pakistan by 8 wickets at Lord's Cricket Ground in London in the 1999 Cricket World Cup Final, securing their second World Cup title.
• June 24 – Kosovo War: NATO marines shoot three gunmen in Kosovo, Yugoslavia after being attacked by the latter, killing one of them and injuring the other two.
• June 25 – Bosnia and Herzegovina gets a new national anthem.
• June 30 – Twenty-three people die in a fire at the Sealand Youth Training Center in South Korea.

  July

• July 1 - Europol the European Union's criminal intelligence agency becomes fully operational.
• July 7 - In Rome, Hicham El Guerrouj runs the fastest mile ever recorded, at 3:43.13.
• July 10 - American soccer player Brandi Chastain scores the game winning penalty kick against China in the final of the FIFA Women's World Cup.
• July 11 - India recaptures Kargil, forcing the Pakistani army to retreat. India announces victory, ending the 2-month conflict.
• July 14 - the Big Blue crane collapse happened during the construction of Miller Park, killing three iron workers.
• July 15 - T-Mobile Park opens for the first time.
• July 16 - John F. Kennedy Jr. dies in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard.
• July 18 - MLB Pitcher David Cone of the New York Yankees, throws the 16th perfect game in Major League Baseball history.
• July 20
• * Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 – piloted by Gus Grissom in 1961 – is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
• * Falun Gong is banned in the People's Republic of China under Jiang Zemin.
• July 22-25 - Woodstock '99 was held in Rome, New York at former Griffiss Air Force Base, which was marred with difficult environmental conditions, poor sanitation, overpriced food and water, looting, violence, rapes, riots and several deaths.
• July 23
• * NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is launched.
• * Mohammed VI of Morocco becomes king upon the death of his father Hassan II.
• *Fourteen Kosovar Serb villagers are killed by ethnic Albanian gunmen in the village of Staro Gračko.
• July 27 - Twenty-one people die in a canyoning disaster at the Saxetenbach Gorge near Interlaken, Switzerland.
• July 31 - NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the lunar surface.